‘Strike’ one! Stewart’s return flops

It was bad enough to learn the Golden Globes telecast — my favorite awards show — would be essentially scrapped because of the writer’s strike, but then Jon Stewart, on his first night back, had to devote nearly his entire half-hour to that darn scribe protest.

Yawn. With all these political debates and caucuses going on, you’d think Stewart, whose “Daily Show” usually skewers politicians so expertly, would have plenty of new material to work with.

Instead, he featured a college professor talking about the strike for what seemed like an eternity and poked fun largely at, well, himself and his reactions to the strike.

One target was his “unibrow,” which he called his contribution to the many hirsute protests by other late-night entertainers.

The funniest use of beards, however, was made by Stephen Colbert at the end of Stewart’s half-hour.

He showed off a ridiculous chin growth that nearly hung down to his waist. He then reached down to make sure his shredder was destroying any evidence of writing.

When Colbert sat back up — voila! — his “beard” was completely gone, proving a shredder can come in handy for all kinds of things.

Here’s hoping both Stewart and Colbert return to what they do best on their second night without writers — at 10 and 10:30 tonight on Comedy Central — and make wonderfully manic mincemeat out of the New Hampshire primary.

I’ll be watching; if you join me, why not throw out a comment or two of your own?